Abstract: In this work, an optical-flow-based pose tracking method with long short-term memory for known uncooperative spacecraft is proposed. In combination with the segmentation network, we constrain the optical flow area of the target to cope with harsh lighting conditions and highly textured background. With the introduction of long short-term memory structure, the proposed method can maintain a robust and accurate tracking performance even in a long-term sequence of images. In our experiments, the pose tracking effects in the synthetic images as well as the SwissCube dataset images are tested, respectively. By comparing with the state-of-the-art pose tracking frameworks, we demonstrate the performance of our method and in particular the improvements under complex environments. PubDate: Wed, 22 Nov 2023 10:20:00 +000
Abstract: Accurate evaluation of the critical nodes in the system is essential work for a multiplatform avionics system (MPAS) for resource allocation and other works. However, current evaluation methods are either limited to the aircraft level or the function module level. There is a lack of research on the evaluation using the information of these two levels. In view of this situation, this paper researches the two-level iterative method of evaluating the importance of aircraft function modules. The influence matrix was constructed by using the node access probability calculated by the PageRank algorithm and the function module weight calculated based on centrality. In addition, the importance of aircraft nodes was used to carry out two-level iteration, and finally, the importance of aircraft function modules was obtained. The experimental results show that this method can comprehensively utilize the information on aircraft cooperative network and function module cooperative network, solve the key problems of two-level iterative evaluation, and meet the requirement of evaluating critical nodes in a system. PubDate: Wed, 22 Nov 2023 09:50:00 +000
Abstract: Affected by the movement of drones, missiles, and other aircraft platforms and the limitation of the accuracy of image sensors, the obtained images have low-resolution and serious loss of image details. Aiming at these problems, this paper studies the image super-resolution reconstruction technology. Firstly, a natural image degradation model based on a generative adversarial network is designed to learn the degradation relationship between image blocks within the image; then, an unsupervised learning residual network is designed based on the idea of image self-similarity to complete image super-resolution reconstruction. The experimental results show that the unsupervised super-resolution reconstruction algorithm is equivalent to the mainstream supervised learning algorithm under ideal conditions. Compared to mainstream algorithms, this algorithm has significantly improved its various indicators in real-world environments under nonideal conditions. PubDate: Tue, 21 Nov 2023 09:50:01 +000
Abstract: In recent years, the quantity of visible satellites has increased significantly due to multiple satellite systems that leaped forward. The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and Galileo satellite navigation system (Galileo) broadcast triple-frequency signals and above to users, thus enhancing the reliability, continuity, and availability of the single-epoch real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning. In this study, an improved single-epoch multifrequency multisystem RTK method is successfully developed for the medium-long baseline. First, the Galileo and BDS extra-wide-lane (EWL) ambiguities are fixed at a high success rate, and the Galileo and BDS wide-lane (WL) ambiguity is achieved via the transformation process. Second, the fixed WL ambiguities of Galileo and BDS are exploited to elevate the fixed rate of GPS WL ambiguity. Third, the parametric strategies for ionospheric delay are carried out to upregulate the narrow-lane (NL) ambiguity-fixed rate of GPS. Further, the real-time data are adopted for verifying the feasibility of the method developed in this study. The experimental results demonstrate the optimal carrier-to-noise density ratio (C/N0) of full operational capability (FOC) E5a/E5b at all frequencies, followed by IIR-M L1, and IIR-A/B L2 exhibits the worst performance. Generally, the multipath combination (MPC) of Galileo signals shows root mean square (RMS) values within 0.4 m, ordered as follows: . For the BDS-2, the B3 signal exhibits optimal performance, while the B1 signal is the worst. The RMS of MPC errors of L1 signals is smaller than the L2 signals for the GPS. Furthermore, under the 50 km baseline, the GPS NL ambiguity-fixed rate using the ionosphere-free (IF) combination reaches only 47.74% at the ratio threshold of 2. Finally, compared to the ionosphere-free combination method, the GPS NL ambiguity-fixed rate is increased by 45.52% with the presented method. The proposed approach broadens the future application of deformation monitoring in medium-long baseline scenarios. PubDate: Thu, 09 Nov 2023 10:20:01 +000
Abstract: Path planning and obstacle avoidance are pivotal for intelligent unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems in various domains, such as postdisaster rescue, target detection, and wildlife conservation. Currently, reinforcement learning (RL) has become increasingly popular in UAV decision-making. However, the RL approaches confront the challenges of partial observation and large state space when searching for random targets through continuous actions. This paper proposes a representation enhancement-based proximal policy optimization (RE-PPO) framework to address these issues. The representation enhancement (RE) module consists of observation memory improvement (OMI) and dynamic relative position-attitude reshaping (DRPAR). OMI reduces collision under partially observable conditions by separately extracting perception features and state features through an embedding network and feeding the extracted features to a gated recurrent unit (GRU) to enhance observation memory. DRPAR compresses the state space when modeling continuous actions by transforming movement trajectories of different episodes from an absolute coordinate system into different local coordinate systems to utilize similarity. In addition, three step-wise reward functions are formulated to avoid sparsity and facilitate model convergence. We evaluate the proposed method in three 3D scenarios to demonstrate its effectiveness. Compared to other methods, our method achieves a faster convergence during training and demonstrates a higher success rate and a lower rate of timeout and collision during inference. Our method can significantly enhance the autonomy and intelligence of UAV systems under partially observable conditions and provide a reasonable solution for UAV decision-making under uncertainties. PubDate: Wed, 08 Nov 2023 08:50:02 +000
Abstract: Terrain traversability analysis (TTA), the key to the navigation of planetary rovers, is significant to the safety of the rover. Therefore, owing to its complexity, the Martian terrain is worth analysing comprehensively based on the terrain variability and hazard level. In this work, we propose a novel method for terrain traversability analysis for the path planning of planetary rovers by integrating Martian terrain geometry features with terrain semantic information, which includes geometry and environmental perception (GEP). Specifically, we deploy semantic segmentation to classify common terrain types, such as rocks, bedrocks, and sand, obtaining semantic information as one part of terrain traversability analysis at the same time. Simultaneously, the point cloud is generated by using binocular images from the planetary rover navigation camera (Navcam) to construct a 2.5D elevation map of the environment to analyse the geometric characteristics of the terrain. Besides, we implement path planning based on the results of TTA-GEP. Overall, our proposed method improves the performance of the terrain traversability analysis and reduces the risk of planetary rovers while detecting in an unstructured environment. PubDate: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 06:50:01 +000
Abstract: Stochastic disturbances are everywhere. The influence of stochastic factors on the modeling and simulation of aircraft flight dynamics should be considered. Therefore, a stochastic differential equation for aircraft flight attitude is modeled based on the traditional one in this paper. After that, an identification method based on the idea of sparse recognition for unknown parameters and stochastic disturbance is proposed. Finally, a set of measured flight data is used to verify that the identified stochastic model has obvious advantages over the traditional deterministic model when the aircraft is maneuvering in flight. This method can improve the accuracy and reliability of the aircraft flight dynamic model. PubDate: Sat, 28 Oct 2023 06:50:01 +000
Abstract: The problem of the distributed cooperative guidance law of multiple missiles attacking a stationary target with impact angle constraint is investigated. A distributed cooperative guidance law, which consists of a nonsingular terminal sliding mode component for ensuring finite time convergence to the desired LOS angle and a coordination component for realizing finite time consensus of time-to-go estimates, is proposed. Analysis shows that the guidance law designed in this study can ensure that missiles’ time-to-go estimates represent real times to go once all the missiles fly along the desired LOS. Therefore, simultaneous arrival can be guaranteed. Furthermore, it is modified to accommodate the communication failure cases. Compared with existing results, this guidance law owns faster convergence rate and can satisfy large impact angles. Numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed guidance law. PubDate: Thu, 26 Oct 2023 11:20:00 +000
Abstract: Target tracking is an important application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The template is the identity of the target and has a great impact on the performance of target tracking. Most methods only keep the latest template of the target, which is intuitive and convenient but has poor ability to resist the change of target appearance, especially to reidentify a target that has disappeared for a long time. In this paper, we propose a practical multiobject tracking (MOT) method, which uses historical information of targets for better adapting to appearance variations during tracking. To preserve the spatial-temporal information of the target, we introduce a memory pool to store masked feature maps at different moments, and precise masks are generated by a segmentation network. Meanwhile, we fuse the feature maps at different moments by calculating the pixel-level similarity between the current feature map and the masked historical feature maps. Benefiting from the powerful segmentation features and the utilization of historical information, our method can generate more accurate bounding boxes of the targets. Extensive experiments and comparisons with many trackers on MOTS, MOT17, and MOT20 demonstrate that our method is competitive. The ablation study showed that the introduction of memory improves the multiobject tracking accuracy (MOTA) by 2.1. PubDate: Thu, 26 Oct 2023 11:20:00 +000
Abstract: A space-based augmentation system (SBAS) provides real-time GNSS correction signals via geostationary satellites for near-ground GNSS users. To use the SBAS correction for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, the correction, especially the ionosphere correction, must be adjusted for the LEO altitude. We apply modified SBAS data to LEO satellite onboard navigator to improve the positioning accuracy of a LEO satellite for possible real-time use. The onboard navigator requires high positioning reliability, and code pseudoranges, rather than phase pseudoranges, are used for the primary measurements. The Galileo NeQuick G model is used to determine the real-time conversion factor of the SBAS ionosphere correction for a LEO satellite. The GPS L1 data from GRACE satellite are combined with the SBAS data from the ground receiver. The onboard navigator combines the precise satellite dynamic model with an extended Kalman filter to improve positioning accuracy and stability. The kinematic positioning method, which uses the weighted least square method without the dynamic model, is also performed for comparison. The SBAS correction reduces the positioning error in both the kinematic positioning and the dynamic positioning. The positioning error reduction of the GPS and WAAS case over the GPS-only case is 25.2% for the kinematic method and 30.6% for the dynamic method. In the case of the dynamic method with the SBAS corrections, the positioning error remains smaller than that of the GPS-only dynamic method even after the satellite has left the SBAS service area. PubDate: Thu, 26 Oct 2023 08:35:00 +000
Abstract: The 6RUS parallel manipulator is a highly versatile and widely used robotic mechanism with six degrees of freedom. Its intricate kinematic structure and its capability to perform complex motion tasks have garnered significant research interest in recent years. The kinematic analysis of the 6RUS mechanism plays a crucial role in understanding its operational characteristics and optimizing its performance for various applications. In this paper, we present a state-of-the-art kinematic algorithm for the 6RUS parallel manipulator. Our algorithm is aimed at addressing the challenges associated with accurately determining the pose and motion of the end-effector relative to the base, considering the complexity of the mechanism’s architecture. By leveraging advanced mathematical modeling techniques and utilizing efficient computational algorithms, our proposed algorithm offers improved accuracy, efficiency, and robustness in determining the kinematic parameters of the 6RUS mechanism. The key contributions of this work include the development of a comprehensive forward and inverse kinematic model for the 6RUS parallel manipulator, incorporating the effects of joint constraints, singularities, and workspace limitations. We also present a detailed analysis of the algorithm’s performance in comparison to existing approaches, demonstrating its superiority in terms of computational efficiency and accuracy. The proposed kinematic algorithm holds significant potential for enhancing the design, control, and trajectory planning of 6RUS parallel manipulators. It provides a solid foundation for advanced applications such as robotic surgery, industrial automation, and virtual reality systems. The results presented in this paper contribute to the growing body of knowledge in parallel manipulator research and pave the way for future developments in the field. PubDate: Wed, 18 Oct 2023 08:50:01 +000
Abstract: This paper is aimed at investigating the microstructure evolution of resin-based ablative materials under aerodynamic heating. The microstructure, morphology, material density, and thermophysical parameters at different positions of the material after aerodynamic heating were deeply studied. The changes in the microstructural characteristics of materials caused by complex reaction processes were investigated, including microstructural morphology, porosity, the overlap relationship between microstructural components, and the mutual positional relationship. The relationship between microstructural evolution and material heat transfer is discussed. By analyzing the heat transfer mechanism and heat transfer path of the microstructure, combing with the analysis results of the evolution of the microstructure and the physical properties of the material, multiscale heat transfer unit cell models were established to predict the equivalent thermal conductivity. Thereby, the evolution of physical properties and microstructure of resin-based ablative materials under aerodynamic heating and the relationship between microstructure evolution and heat transfer process are obtained. It can improve the accuracy of ablative heat transfer simulation. In addition, it can provide reference for the process design of ablative materials and promote the application and development of ablative materials in the field of aircraft. PubDate: Mon, 16 Oct 2023 09:35:01 +000
Abstract: An on-orbit thrust estimation method of satellite based on parallel system, which can achieve high-efficiency and high-precision thrust estimation, is proposed. A complete satellite maneuvering parallel system framework is constructed. Initially, a real-time artificial model, which is consistent with the actual system, is established. The injection time of maneuvering control is estimated optimally based on the modification of the artificial model with the specific injection time treated as the optimization parameter. The jet time, with the minimum maneuvering error, is obtained. Then, a maneuver strategy is designed and fed back to the actual system. The method based on a parallel system with jet time as the optimal parameter has higher control accuracy than the previous maneuvering control, which only considers the speed increment. Simulation results show that the terminal error of the first maneuver using the parallel system method is less than 100 meters for a maneuvering mission of tens of kilometers. PubDate: Fri, 13 Oct 2023 10:05:01 +000
Abstract: In order to improve the safety and reliability and maintain the stability of imaging quality when a space camera with a cargo spaceship is launched, a protection system for the space camera is designed. Firstly, according to the mechanical properties of the space camera, a working principle of the protection system is elaborated, and a model of the system is proposed. Secondly, a protective cover and a vibration isolation block are designed on the basis of shape, size, and requirements of the space camera. Thirdly, based on the finite element mesh, static and sinusoidal vibration simulation calculations of the space camera and its protection system are carried out. Finally, the protection system is validated after mechanical experiment. The results reveal that the three directional fundamental frequencies of space camera are 43.39 Hz, 26.74 Hz, and 22.83 Hz, respectively, and the maximum response of sinusoidal vibration acceleration is 17.02 g, which is amplified by 3.4 times. The image quality of the space camera lens is consistent before and after the test, which satisfies the requirement of the cargo ship. PubDate: Thu, 12 Oct 2023 11:50:01 +000
Abstract: The positioning function of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is a challenging and fundamental research topic and is the premise for UAVs to realize autonomous navigation. The disappearance of satellite signals makes it challenging to achieve accurate positioning. Thus, visual positioning algorithms based on computer vision have been proposed in recent years and these algorithms have produced good results. However, these algorithms have relatively simple functions and cannot perceive the environment. Their versatility is poor, and mismatching often occurs, which affects the positioning accuracy. Aiming to address the need for integrated target recognition, target matching, and positioning of UAVs, we propose an algorithm that integrates the target recognition, matching, and positioning functions by combining the single-shot multibox detector (SSD) algorithm with the deep feature matching algorithm. This algorithm is based on the idea of pseudo-Siamese networks and the SSD algorithm, introducing a deep feature matching method to directly calculate the correspondence between two images. The main idea is to use the VGG network trained by the SSD target recognition algorithm to extract deep features, without any special training for feature matching. Finally, by sharing neural network weights, the integrated design of target recognition and image-matching localization algorithms is achieved. Mismatches between the real-time and reference images are addressed by introducing the grid-based motion statistics algorithm to optimize the matching result and improve the correct matching efficiency of the target. The University-Release dataset was used to compare and analyze the performance of the proposed algorithm to verify its superiority and feasibility. The results show that the matching accuracy of the PSiamRML algorithm is generally good and that it significantly compensates for changes in the contrast, scale, brightness, blur, deformation, and so on, apart from improving the stability and robustness. Finally, a matching test scenario with aerial images captured by an S1000 six-rotor UAV served to verify the effectiveness and practicability of the PSiamRML algorithm. PubDate: Thu, 12 Oct 2023 09:35:01 +000
Abstract: Due to their enormous characteristics and applicability, quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have enjoyed much popularity lately. However, designing a stable control strategy for quadrotors still remains one of the major concerns mainly due to the requirement of an accurate system model. They are naturally underactuated systems, with complex and nonlinear dynamics as well as interaxes couplings. Considering the dynamical complexities of these vehicles, one of the efficient methods is to utilize the relay feedback experiments and automatic tuning approach to tackle these issues. This paper investigates the employment of the relay with embedded integrator approach, wherein the quadrotor dynamics are estimated effectively with minimal parameters as compared to previously utilized relay with hysteresis technique. Frequency sampling filter (FSF) is further utilized for the extraction of the needful data through the signals obtained using the relay experiments, followed by the estimation of the plant dynamics. PID controllers have then been developed using the approximated quadrotor models. Which are used in the proposed cascade control structure for the quadrotor. The demonstrated results and analysis present the efficacy of designed control system technique for the quadrotor UAV. PubDate: Tue, 10 Oct 2023 11:05:01 +000
Abstract: The tip leakage vortex (TLV) induced by the tip clearance flow has a significant impact on the performance of centrifugal compressors, causing impeller flow losses and reducing the stall margin. To solve this problem, an unsteady flow control technology called the NCFC method is proposed based on the concept of negative circulation control, realized by a vortex generator placed in a tube connected with the shroud through a hole. The approach is derived from a theoretical study of the compressor TLV by introducing a two-dimensional vortex model. A numerical simulation is then performed to verify the effectiveness of the NCFC method. The result shows that the NCFC method can greatly stabilize the flow field at the blade tip and improve the stall margin and efficiency of the compressor without reducing the total pressure ratio of the compressor, which has the characteristics of both unsteadiness and negative circulation effect. In addition, a HC method with only unsteady excitation effect is also studied for comparison, which only slightly stabilizes the blade tip flow and increases the stall margin of the compressor, suggesting that the NCFC is more effective than the HC. Finally, it is highly recommended to improve the efficiency of any unsteady jet/suction and separation flow interaction. PubDate: Mon, 09 Oct 2023 11:50:00 +000
Abstract: The large-scale space structure during on-orbit assembly is a time-varying system. The dynamic modeling problem of such incrementally increasing space structure is investigated, and a modular dynamic modeling approach is proposed in this paper. The dynamic model of each substructure is first established, and then, a database is designed to store substructure models, which is used for subsequent dynamic modeling in the assembly process. The fixed connection relationship between adjacent substructures is described by constraint conditions, which lead to the coefficient matrices of adjacent substructures being decoupled. The substructures are assembled in a given sequence, and then, the dynamic modeling, to describe the large-scale space structure on-orbit assembly, is gradually completed via using the proposed modeling approach. The numerical simulation is finally presented. The results demonstrate that the extra calculation resulting from the coefficient matrices coupling of adjacent substructures is avoided. Moreover, the proposed dynamic model can accurately describe the dynamic characteristics of the large-scale space structure during on-orbit assembly. PubDate: Sat, 07 Oct 2023 06:05:00 +000
Abstract: The purpose of this work is to study the effects of different loading rate ratios and loading speeds on the biaxial tension of hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) solid propellant. A proper kind of biaxial tensile specimen with which the stresses in its central part can be obtained with the loads acted on each loading direction is designed and used in the study, and the strains in its central parts are obtained with the digital image correlation (DIC) method. The stress and strain relationship at each direction can be obtained by experiments. The uniaxial stress vs. strain curves and the biaxial stress vs. strain curves were obtained, and it was found that the loading speed remarkably influenced the biaxial tensile behaviors of HTPB propellant. The Mises equivalent stress and strain could be used to describe the biaxial tension stress and strain state, and the exponential constitutive model obtained in the study could be used to predict the stress vs. strain curve under different test conditions. PubDate: Fri, 06 Oct 2023 07:50:01 +000
Abstract: In this study, a robust adaptive beamformer based on constant modulus (CM) criteria is developed to improve the robustness of the array beamforming, which is a reconstructing minimal optimization for solving the mismatch problem of weight vector caused by steering vector mismatch. In the global positioning system (GPS) L1 band, firstly, a GPS array signal is modelled by designing a dual-polarized antenna array. Secondly, the distortion problem of beamforming is formulated in the traditional minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer. For repairing the weight vector mismatch problem, a novel beamformer based on the CM envelope response is proposed to reconstruct MVDR beamforming in the array processing. Besides, min-max penalty criteria are used to enable the beamformer to allocate more degrees of freedom (DOFs) when penalizing the MVDR beamformer responses. Finally, an auxiliary two-element real variable is designed to plan the proposed beamformer. But it is still a nonconvex quadratic programming problem, so an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is employed to transform the objective function into several subproblems. Illustrative numerical simulation results are provided for validating the effectiveness of the proposed beamformer by comparing it with other existing approaches. PubDate: Wed, 04 Oct 2023 12:20:01 +000
Abstract: The ducted coaxial propeller (DCP) is highly advantageous in the design of eVTOL aircraft due to its safety, compactness, and low noise levels. To study the aerodynamic characteristics of DCP in hovering, a novel eVTOL was used, and a slip grid model was established to solve the three-dimensional unsteady N-S equation. The aerodynamic characteristics of DCP were compared to those of the free coaxial propeller (FCP) and ducted single propeller (DSP) to reveal the interaction mechanism of unsteady flow between the duct and propellers. The results indicate that the duct significantly mitigates the intensity of tip vortexes by changing the characteristics of propeller tip winding, which reduces the corresponding energy loss. Additionally, the static pressure loss is decreased by the reduced radical-induced velocity in the slipstream area. Finally, the induced power loss is reduced by the decreased axial-induced velocity and suppressed wake contraction, resulting in DCP having 39% higher aerodynamic efficiency than FCP and the duct accounting for 41.7% of the total lift. Although DCP generates 1.77 times more lift than DSP, its aerodynamic efficiency is only 91.08% of DSP. PubDate: Tue, 03 Oct 2023 11:35:01 +000
Abstract: Observation frequency is analyzed over four areas of the Mediterranean basis where poaching, illegal fishing, and illegal trafficking of goods and people are active. To this end, a geometrical observation and dynamical model is utilized which accounts for multiple satellites and multiple orbital planes and is applied to SIASGE and Sentinel-1 missions. Statistics show that a few hours are needed in the mean to reobserve the same area. PubDate: Tue, 03 Oct 2023 10:35:00 +000
Abstract: The use of deep learning (DL) algorithms has improved the performance of vision-based space applications in recent years. However, generating large amounts of annotated data for training these DL algorithms has proven challenging. While synthetically generated images can be used, the DL models trained on synthetic data are often susceptible to performance degradation when tested in real-world environments. In this context, the Interdisciplinary Center of Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) at the University of Luxembourg has developed the “SnT Zero-G Lab,” for training and validating vision-based space algorithms in conditions emulating real-world space environments. An important aspect of the SnT Zero-G Lab development was the equipment selection. From the lessons learned during the lab development, this article presents a systematic approach combining market survey and experimental analyses for equipment selection. In particular, the article focuses on the image acquisition equipment in a space lab: background materials, cameras, and illumination lamps. The results from the experiment analyses show that the market survey complimented by experimental analyses is required for effective equipment selection in a space lab development project. PubDate: Sat, 30 Sep 2023 13:20:08 +000
Abstract: With the steady increase of air traffic column, an auxiliary decision tool is required to compensate the operation redundancy deficiency of more sectors of air traffic control. To solve the problem of nonconflict high-density departure and arrival traffic flow, this method is expected to rapidly establish and maintain safe separation with more flexible changing strategies for aircraft heading and speed. This paper proposes an improved reinforcement learning framework to achieve conflict detection and resolution. The proposed framework includes the first development of an air traffic flow model based on a multiagent Markov decision process. The goal reward function was then maximized by improved Monte-Carlo tree search combined with an upper confidence bound tree. Three simulation scenarios were designed for illustrating the improvements of the proposed algorithm, with the results indicating that the algorithm could establish and maintain safe separation between 20 agents in the simplified hexagon-shaped airspace of Huadong, China. Furthermore, the proposed method was demonstrated to reduce the number of conflicts between aircraft agents by up to 26.32% compared to previous research. PubDate: Sat, 16 Sep 2023 06:35:01 +000
Abstract: In this paper, a novel guidance law based on a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm is presented to deal with the maneuvering target interception problem using a deep deterministic policy gradient descent neural network. We take the missile’s line-of-sight (LOS) rate as the observation of the RL algorithm and propose a novel reward function, which is constructed with the miss distance and LOS rate to train the neural network off-line. In the guidance process, the trained neural network has the capacity of mapping the missile’s LOS rate to the normal acceleration of the missile directly, so as to generate guidance commands in real time. Under the actor-critic (AC) framework, we adopt the twin-delayed deep deterministic policy gradient (TD3) algorithm by taking the minimum value between a pair of critics to reduce overestimation. Simulation results show that the proposed TD3-based RL guidance law outperforms the current state of the RL guidance law, has better performance to cope with continuous action and state space, and also has a faster convergence speed and higher reward. Furthermore, the proposed RL guidance law has better accuracy and robustness when intercepting a maneuvering target, and the LOS rate is converged. PubDate: Wed, 13 Sep 2023 09:05:01 +000
Abstract: Dual numbers were applied to the dynamics of a rigid-flexible combination system (RFCS) with time-varying configuration in this paper. The six-dimensional spinor form of the motion of flexible modules, including the dual vector, dual momentum, dual inertia operator, dual coupling coefficient operator, and dual-modal coordinates, was derived using the dual numbers that could represent spiral motion in a compact form. On this basis, the integrated dynamic model of a rigid-flexible combination system with a time-varying configuration was proposed. And then, the relative dynamics equations between two rigid-flexible combination systems which both have time-varying configuration were provided. An on-orbit assembly mission of flexible modules transported and operated by free-flying space robots (FFSRs) is presented as an exemplary application of relative dynamics. Simulation results illustrate the complex coupling effects on the relative motion between two rigid-flex combination systems with time-varying configuration. PubDate: Wed, 13 Sep 2023 08:35:00 +000
Abstract: Landing control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is challenging because of the strong nonlinear dynamics, multivariable, model uncertainties, wind variations, and sensor noise. Motivated by this fact, this paper investigates an automatic landing system (ALS) that includes trajectory generation and guidance law for the first flight test of a turbine-based combined cycle technology demonstrator. Specifically, the control scheme increases the original model’s order to generate a reasonable monotone-decreasing throttle reference flare trajectory by the pseudospectral method. Subsequently, the guidance law based on innovative multivariable active disturbance rejection control is designed to robustly track the reference altitude and velocity simultaneously with high accuracy. The multivariable extended state observer (ESO) incorporated decoupling algorithm enhances the estimation capability and accuracy of potential problem in cross-coupling dynamics compared to the traditional ESO. It is proven that the closed-loop error dynamic has bounded-input bounded-output stability and an explicit upper bound is given. Numerical simulation verifies that the presented approach has better robustness and higher tracking accuracy for external disturbances and parametric uncertainties than the existing benchmark autolanding controller. Finally, flight tests show that the proposed ALS can land the vehicle effectively and safely under severe wind conditions. PubDate: Sat, 09 Sep 2023 06:50:01 +000
Abstract: Rotor blades are one of the key components of helicopter. If the blades are damaged, the safety and reliability of the helicopter will be seriously affected. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the damage identification of the rotating blades. In this paper, a rotating cantilever beam is used to model the rotor blade. Based on the assumed mode method and Hamilton’s principle, the equation of motion is formulated, and the correctness of the model is verified by numerical and experimental studies. Altogether, two methods are used to identify the damages on the blade. The first one is the cluster analysis method based on the fuzzy C-mean theory. In order to reduce the dimension of the signal features, the singular value decomposition is introduced. The second method is the curvature of frequency response function method that can be used to determine the exact position of damages. Simulation results show that one can use fuzzy C-mean method to determine whether there is damage on the blade firstly and then determine the exact position of the damage through the curvature of frequency response function method. PubDate: Sat, 09 Sep 2023 06:35:01 +000
Abstract: This paper studies the model-free robust adaptive cruise control problem of a vehicle with unknown nonlinear dynamics and disturbances. First, under backstepping control framework, the position tracking errors with different spacing strategies are used to design a virtual control law, which provides a velocity reference. Then, a novel data-driven sliding surface whose parameters are updated by designing estimation algorithm is developed to handle the unknown uncertainties and disturbances. Finally, the model-free robust backstepping adaptive cruise control (MFRB-ACC) method including PI control, model-free control, and robust control is designed. The novelty of the proposed control technique lies in its strong robustness, which is not based on the precise vehicle model. The designed data-driven sliding surface releases the necessity for the accurate mathematical model of the vehicle and guarantees the inherent robustness of the controller, in particular to uncertainties, modelling error, or external disturbance. Moreover, the designed controller contains three terms such that it has an effective decoupling ability and strong robustness. The effectiveness and superiority of the designed MFRB-ACC method are validated on MATLAB, and the simulation results show that compared to the PID algorithm, the designed MFRB-ACC algorithm can track its preceding vehicle with lower tracking error under different spacing strategies, different operating conditions, and low sampling frequencies. Especially at a sampling frequency of 0.1 s, the error under the PID-ACC increases from 0.2 m at a sampling frequency of 0.01 s to 2 m, and the error under MFRB-ACC has little change compared to the error at a sampling frequency of 0.01 s. PubDate: Fri, 08 Sep 2023 08:05:02 +000
Abstract: Recently, flow control using vortex generators (VGs) and a Gurney flap (GF) has received considerable attention, but independently. The purpose of this study is to perform a numerical investigation into the lift augmentation effects of a tiltrotor wing with the combination of VGs and GF. The numerical results were obtained with the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, and the turbulence was solved by the Spalart-Allmaras one-equation turbulence model. The separate and joint performances of these two control devices at different angles of attack are determined. It is shown that the combined configuration can provide greater lift augmentation than either device individually. Compared with the baseline wing, the implementation of both devices increases the stall angle of attack from 10° to 22°, and the maximum lift coefficient is improved by 82.33%. PubDate: Thu, 07 Sep 2023 09:20:00 +000
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